Modern Dukes: New Friends
by AmandaRobsonDuke
Summary: Adopted grandson of Bo Duke, Johnny finds a new friend in an unexpected way.


A new school year at Hazzard County High School meant new friends, football and forgotten homework. It also brought new students to high school for the first time. At 15 years old high school can be a scary, unknown place for students transitioning from middle to high school.

Eighteen year old Johnny Duke had two classes to finish up before he could graduate high school and head off for college. The last two years spent on the rodeo circuit had interfered with his schooling. It wasn't that Johnny was a poor student, or that he didn't enjoy learning. Quite the opposite. He simply had his own priorities. But Johnny knew that rodeo was a short lived career. He looked at his own father for proof; Chet Duke had spent years riding bulls, but only in his early thirties any hope of a professional career was over. John wanted to set himself up for when he couldn't rodeo competitively anymore.

_Hopefully in thirty years…_ he thought to himself as he climbed the steps to Hazzard County High, his brown cowboy boots clunking against the cement. Johnny hefted his backpack higher on his broad shoulder and pushed the door open. Even at 18, HCH was a new world to him too. His family had spent five years away from Hazzard and he'd started high school in Canada. This was the first time inside the hallowed walls.

The young cowboy pressed his way through the crowded hallway, many of the faces he recognized from his youth. But one made him grin like a fool when he came into view. James Duncan was trying to chat up a young blonde girl. Trying being the key word.

"Now why don't ya leave that nice girl alone ya ole hound dog?" Johnny came up behind the pair, thumping his best friend on the back firmly. As James turned to face his pal, the girl scurried off down the hall.

"What kinda wingman are you?!" James demanded, giving his pal a good-natured punch in the gut.

John grabbed his stomach, faking being hurt. "I don't think even I could help ya with that one." Johnny replied with a snort. "We'll work on it." He smiled at his old pal, nodding towards where the girl had disappeared, blue eyes glinting mischievously.

"That's the least ya good do for an old pal." James, slammed his locker door closed and spun the lock with a flair. "So, bio for you again eh? And only two classes… " James nudged Johnny in the ribs with his elbow as the pair headed off down the hall, "Ah think you'll be getting alotta practice with the ladies in that spare time."

Laughing, Johnny shook his head. "Nah. I gotta help out on the ranch when I'm not here. And maybe if you paid a little more attention to school and not the girls you wouldn't have to take bio over again either."

Before James could reply with his own sharp-witted comment a huge, hulking man appeared before the two in the hallway. He was a broad as an ox with a massive shoulders and a barrel chest. Though he looked like a monster of a man his smile was genuine, though slightly masked by a moustache as monstrous as the rest of him. "Duncan!" He boomed, "Practice at four. Don't be late or I'll cut ya before the season even starts."

James chuckled but straightened up giving the older man a firm salute. "Yes Sir Coach."

The coach grinned but paused to examine Johnny with a bushy eyebrow raised. "And who's yer pal?" He barked. "That can't be scrawny Johnny can it?" He asked, taking a step back to get a better look at the teen. Coach Baxter had once been the physical education teacher at the middle school and had taken a position coaching the high school's football team two years earlier.

It's true that Johnny was a scrawny kid. At 13 he still hadn't grown into his long arms and legs and that made him awkward in any physical sense. He would trip and stumble over his own limbs regularly in gym class. But he always tried. Coach Baxter admired someone who didn't give up.

"Ah don't believe may eyes." He commented. "Ya finally grew into yer spider limbs."

Now at 18, Johnny towered over many of his peers at 6 foot 1. Unlike some of the other students he had filled into his broad shoulders and two years spent riding bucking broncs had filled out the rest.

"Maybe I can make a good tight end outta ya yet." He slapped Johnny on the back as he moved past the boys. "Remember boys… four o'clock."

He was gone into the rush of teenagers before Johnny could protest. He wasn't a football player. He was a cowboy. And didn't have time for both. If he wanted to be a real cowboy he needed to be riding, not catching a football for hours. Plus, if he wanted to get a degree he needed to buckle down and study.

"Let's git before we're late." James nudged him out of his own thoughts and they weaved through the bustling hallway to class.

"John… it's one hour of yer life. Try it out… if ya don't like it you don't have do it. But c'mon… would it really be so bad to kick some ass out on the field and then celebrate with one of them pretty cheerleaders?"

Johnny sighed heavily, tossing his backpack into the bed of his Ford pickup. He glanced down at his watch. "I got 20 minutes… I gotta pick up my brother and sister…"

James rolled his eyes. "Alright man, I gotta go get changed, just meet me out on the field." The other boy took off towards the school at a jog.

Shaking his head, Johnny leaned back against the truck stuffing his hands into his pockets. Football, cheerleaders, high school drama. It all seemed so childish to him. He couldn't wait to finish the semester and get outta Hazzard High. As he contemplated the dilemmas of high school, Johnny's attention was captured when he heard shouting and a scuffle nearby.

He may have been adopted into his family, but he was a Duke. Trouble was never far away and he walked towards the sounds. Anger flared when he caught sight of two boys fighting the parking lot nearby.

"Fuckin' nerd… I told ya to stay away from the cafeteria. Ain't no place for dorks there." A bigger boy, clad in a black leather jacket and dark jeans clung to the collar of the younger boy's shirt, shaking him hard. "I don't care if ya starve! Ya fuckin' smartass. Eat yer damn books for all I care."

Johnny moved in a flash, stopping next to the pair. "HEY!" He shouted angrily.

Both boys looked over at him. The younger one's glasses hanging off his face at an awkward angle. The older's dark eyes flashed dangerously and he shoved the other boy away, moving towards Johnny. "Why don't you mind yer own business and go back to the farm ya hick!"

Johnny held his ground, unafraid. He didn't walk away from a fight, or from someone in trouble. The other boy looked older than Johnny even, perhaps in his early twenties. Too old to still be in high school, but clearly the type that couldn't graduate.

"Why don't you try eating a book..? Might be the only way to get anything through yer thick skull…" Johnny hissed back.

The other boy swung for Johnny, but with lightening fast reflexes Johnny's hand snapped over the fist, stopping it dead in it's tracks. Frustrated, the other boy ripped his fist away. "I don't have time for this bullshit." He walked away, spitting towards the ground. He glared at both boys and disappeared between the cars.

From the front steps of the school, hulking Coach Baxter watched the encounter noting Johnny's fast hands and courage.

"Ya okay Bud?" Johnny asked the younger boy who adjusted his glasses and nodded a little as he stopped to pick up his backpack.

"Yeah… thanks."

"Don't worry about him… he's just jealous cause he ain't never gonna get outta here and in five years he'll be delivering packages to your law firm or something." Johnny gave the other boy a smile and stuck out a hand. "Johnny Duke by the way."

"Matthew Wallace." The younger boy shook Johnny's hand and smiled back. "Thanks again. And it will be my medical practice he delivers to."

John chuckled. "Yeah? Tell me about it..."

The two new friends walked back towards the school, chatting.


End file.
